1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to communications systems and more particularly to information exchange in such systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable communications units have become ubiquitous in today's society. In particular, millions of individuals communicate with one another through the use of cellular telephones and the communications networks that support such devices. Although the quality of these communications has made tremendous strides, problems remain. For example, battery life is a major problem with cellular telephones, as the mobile unit will shut down once the battery voltage drops to a certain level. Moreover, as a caller moves through and away from a cell, there is a chance that the mobile unit will lose contact with the base station because of the attenuation of the base station signal or because of some other technical problem. As a result, many phone calls are lost or dropped.
These lost calls are inconvenient to the call participants. As an example, the telephone for a first caller may lose contact with a base station just as a second caller is beginning a lengthy description of directions or some other instructive. The second caller, as he is unaware of the loss of signal strength, may talk for an extended amount of time before realizing that the first caller is no longer connected. Such an incident may also occur if the battery voltage for the battery of the first caller's telephone drops below the minimum amount of voltage required for operation and the first caller's telephone shuts off.